Crusaders criticised for shooting wild animals

A
University of Canterbury expert on human-animal relations
has criticised Crusaders rugby players shooting wild animals
in Africa.

Pictures of Crusaders players on a hunting trip
in South Africa are being used by an environmental
organisation in its fight against joyride hunting. Reports
show photos posted by the Landmark Foundation on its
Facebook page players with wild animals they shot while on
tour.

The pictures with the Crusaders players had first
appeared on a general interest hunting Facebook page. The
foundation posted the pictures on its Facebook page two days
ago. Since then the page had been visited 25,000
times.

Foundation director Dr Bool Smut has asked if it
was appropriate that rugby teams `scrum down over a dead
zebra. Is that respectful of that animal?

The University
of Canterbury’s Associate Professor Annie Potts Associate,
co-director of the university’s New Zealand Centre for
Human-Animal Studies, says the rugby players’ actions
demonstrate a way in which masculinity intersects with the
domination of nature.

“Being a real man in western
culture has been connected with dominating the natural world
and rugby players are viewed in New Zealand as the epitomy
of traditional masculinity.

“I'm not surprised they
would be photographed doing this kind of thing. It's another
form of competition, after all, and they can perform being
real men in front of each other at the same
time.

“Gender studies scholars have written extensively
about this kind of thing. In his book Brutal: Manhood and
the Exploitation of Animals, Brian Luke says hunting is a
form of men's domination over nature, largely enacted to
impress other men.

“Some of the terms and metaphors
hunters use, including how they talk about their guns,
demonstrate the relationship men have with each other when
exploiting nature.

“From a more sinister perspective,
these animals may have been set up for the kill. Some
safaris like this, or organised hunting trips, keep
herbivorous animals in certain areas in order to release
them for hunters to shoot or for tourists who want to see
so-called natural kills.

“If the Crusaders want to show
how strong and tough they are, not how easy it is to pull a
trigger, they'd be better to walk across a really natural -
not bogus natural - wilderness area in Africa and see if
they can outrun a lion. Hunting a wild herbivorous animal
with modern technology is cowardly and
cruel.”

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